CLEVELAND, Ohio – For the first time in the last two years, Say Yes Cleveland has solid funding, but it’s banking on a federal grant next year to stay that way.
The program needs just $1.6 million from Cuyahoga County to round out the funding required to sustain its support specialists another year, Executive Director Diane Downing told council’s Education, Environment and Sustainability Committee this week.
That’s significantly less than in prior years, when the county funded half of the program’s $9.4 million budget.
This year, most funding is covered by other sources, Downing said. Cleveland Metropolitan School District and participating charter schools will pay $3.3 million to run the program through June 2025, and the remaining $4.5 million will come from a grant from the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
The committee referred the spending to the full council for approval.
Say Yes turned to TANF dollars last year to fill a major funding gap, after council cut some of their funding when it learned it would not be getting the Title IV-E reimbursements promised for participants from the foster care system. Members told Say Yes to either find a way to get more foster youth involved in the program or find other dollars.
“We did take the concerns that the county council expressed very seriously,” Downing said.
The program is currently working with a consultant and other partners to apply for more Title IV-E funding in January. The hope is that money will replace the TANF funding going forward, she said.
The public funding covers Say Yes’ administration costs and its 105 support specialists, who work with families at the schools to address housing, medical, food, mental health or behavioral health needs. Those specialists made 15,000 referrals for services over the past year, Downing said, calling them a “crucial link” in the program’s success.
The dollars are separate from the scholarship program, which sends CMSD graduates to college or Pell-eligible job-training programs for free. Those scholarships are paid for by private sources, which have raised over $106 million to date, and are not in danger, Downing said.
“We’ll provide what we promised when Say Yes launched,” Downing said. “That is, tuition scholarships over 25 years.”